The Americas

That there is a need to rebuild the US Navy is disputed by few in the mainstream. Initially at least, readiness needs to be prioritised by beginning to clear the many years of deferred maintenance that have undermined the fleet. But in the longer run, building up both numbers and capabilities matter.

The signing of a peace agreement between the State and the FARC will open the door to the transitional road to peace. To complete the transition successfully it will require an ad hoc legal structure that can accommodate the demands of the FARC for demobilizing its members.

Since a 2006 crackdown by the Calderon government against drug cartels operating within Mexico, some estimates put the death toll as high as 120,000.[1] Despite staggering statistics such as these and multiple acts of public brutality, the conflict - and its severity - remains a relative unknown in the West.

Whilst both Vietnam and the US suffered a massive trauma as a result of the conflict between the two countries, the status the war occupies today in these nations is more as a set of personal tragedies, rather than a cultural and institutional monolith that defines the relationship between them. If handled correctly, enhanced collaboration could offer the prospect of massive and almost cost-free foreign policy benefits for both countries.

Since February this year, Venezuela has been in an extreme state of upheaval. Even for a country like Venezuela with extreme polarization and lively political debate, riots of this magnitude are uncommon. What started as a demonstration by a group of students in the south-west of the country claiming for more security at universities, has transformed into the worst political violence the country has experienced in more than twenty years.

On this, the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, the wounds are still fresh and raw in much of the West. Images of men and women diving to their deaths, rather than be crushed and of emergency personnel dying to save those inside the towers still haunt almost aspect of Western politics.

By Kate Wallace – Former Senior Fellow 30th June 2013 The Boston bombings have reminded us of the fear and destruction that many around the world live in everyday. When freedom in one part of the world is threatened, freedom ...